


Lost in the Drift

by CactusGirl



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Drift Compatibility, Eventual Romance, F/F, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 16:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14115969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CactusGirl/pseuds/CactusGirl
Summary: AU/Crossover of Pacific Rim 1Alex and Kara Danvers were the last line of defense against the Kaiju at Anchorage. Kara lost herself for a moment in the drift during the heat of battle. The Kaiju ripped Alex from her harness with a devastating blow to their Jaeger. Kara came back to her senses in time to defeat the Kaiju by herself. She even managed to pilot the Jaeger and her badly wounded sister back to shore. Despite Kara's success against the Kaiju, she immediately retired from the Jaeger program and went into civilian life. However, video of the attack and the unnamed pilot's single-handed triumph over the category 3 Kaiju became legendary. It earned her the title of Supergirl and started an urban legend that one day Supergirl would return and fight back the Kaiju.Four years later, the Jaeger program is on its last legs. The Kaiju encounters are increasing. The coastal wall is nowhere near complete. Marshall Lucy Lane has a plan to seal the breach, but she needs a team of pilots in order for it to work. She needs Supergirl.





	Lost in the Drift

**Author's Note:**

> Kell writes another adaption crossover!  
> (see Cactusgirl329 on FF for my other ones)
> 
> Like all of the adaptions I write, I get bored if it's exactly like the original so the plot follows the basic outline of the first movie, but I have definitely changed certain sections of it and I will flesh out a lot of the major themes which were only briefly touched on in the film, but not in detail.
> 
> I only watched Pacific Rim 1 like a week ago and I haven't watched the 2nd one. This story is staying within the 1st movie timeline. I watched it with my friends who dared me to make any OTP Drift Compatible - of course I chose Supercorp. 
> 
> Sooo unless I make an egregious error on something, send me a message, but I do plan to take liberties. 
> 
> Special thanks to my editor, Whitney, who has tolerated and held me to the highest standards in all the years we've known each other. Thank you!
> 
> Hope you enjoy! Update schedule about every 1.5-2 weeks.

_2025_  
_Pacific Ocean, outside Hong Kong_  
_Pan Pacific Defense Corps_  
_Shatterdome Jaeger Program Station_

_Recommissioned and Awaiting a New Name Assignment Mark-3 Jaeger, Interior_

“I’m not happy with the preliminary tests in the drift runs. We’ll need to run them again with the updated calibrations. The previous calculations are from four years ago. I expect better from you and the rest of the team, Sam.”

The Pan Pacific Defense Corps Shatterdome Jaeger Program Station was situated on a vessel carrying the last remaining jaegers and located miles away from Hong Kong. It was the last defense against the Kaiju and it was never quiet. It housed the military might of the global government and four very different jaeger teams. Repairs and technicians were constantly working round the clock to ensure their jaegers were fully operationally.

“Sam?”

The sounds of those men and women working were distant and muffled in the small space between the armor plate of the left arm and the joint socket to the chest cavity where several missile heads should have been fixed. However, inside the chest cavity, it was only the sound of steel, metal, fire, and Lena’s wearing patience.

“Sam, did you get all of that?”

Nothing.

“Sam.” Lena repeated harder and harsher. Sam’s name echoed through the jaeger too much. If Lena’s team of engineers and technicians were on time, if Lena didn’t have to re-do her technicians’ work consistently, if she hadn’t been working with outdated systems and even older technology in the Mark-3 jaeger, Sam’s name would have died in the chest cavity unable to echo in a fully operational Jaeger.

However, that wasn’t the case. Sam’s name repeated over and over again; a reminder Lena’s team was behind.

“Sam!”

The comms between them crackled to life and a voice jolted. Distantly, Lena heard the welding taking place elsewhere in the jaeger abruptly cut off.

“Lena?”

“Did you hear me? About the drift drive runs?”

“Yes and I already sent word to the techs to start retesting in the lab before coming back out here.”

“Good. We’re already behind and I can just hear the marshal asking me why we’re still fiddling around with calculations instead of proceeding to the next phase. Meetings with the marshal are tense enough.”

“You know I’m actually quite competent of managing the engineering team myself since you did put me in charge of them in addition to the L-Corp financials I was already managing, but if you want to take over one of those things…” Sam’s voice trailed off.

Lena smirked into her datapad. “No, I’m just fine being the CEO.”

“Could have fooled me since you’re currently in the middle of repairing a jaeger.”

“I find some things are done better and faster if my hands are on them.”

“CEO, engineer, scientist…”

Sam listed all of Lena’s titles softly under her breath much to the casual annoyance of Lena.

“It’s the end of the world.” Even inside the massive jaeger, Lena could see the orange glow of the countdown War Clock in the command center of the station. It was visible from anywhere in the hanger and served as a constant reminder of how close they were to end of humanity. “What good is anyone in an office these days?”

Sam teased back. “It would do my scheduling some good.”

Lena readjusted her worklight to the opposite side of the joint socket and rolled her eyes. The missing circuitry sections she had been trying to locate for the past twenty minutes had been moved by the previous jaeger engineers and its location was not updated on the technical plans. “I finally found the circuitry that controls the missile targeting system in the chest and you’ll never guess where it was.”

“Was? Lena, please don’t tell me-”

The sound of cracking plastic and metal filled their comms followed by an audible sigh from Sam.

Lena dismissed Sam’s dismay. “It was outdated and secured improperly. It’s probably the reason why the previous engineers couldn’t isolate the cause of the two second delay when firing the missiles. Placing the weapons system so close to hull could have led to overheating before even firing.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t even get a chance to see the exact wiring. I could have repurposed it. You know we don’t have unlimited resources.”

“Sam Arias, there’s a reason I handpicked you for my team. You can’t let the previous engineer’s mistakes slow you down. I’m determined to have this jaeger operational ahead of the marshal’s deadline and better than it ever did.”

Lena leaned back re-adjusting her position. Sure, she could have had any of her techs up in the suit welding and removing the badly damaged sections of the jaeger. No one would question it. Most of the military assigned techs on her team jumped at the chance to rebuild the decommissioned mech. After it was announced that the Lena Luthor would head the project, most of them stayed despite the negativity around anything named Luthor. The techs kept their comments to themselves, but Lena wasn’t naive. She knew they all gossiped. She knew they didn’t trust her. She didn’t blame them.

The Luthor name didn’t inspire much confidence. Her brother was the reason there was a breach.

So, sure, she could have had any of her techs in the suit welding and removing sections, but this was personal. If there was failure to be had, she would bare it all.

Lena lowered her face shield and repositioned her work light to shine on the top of the joint where there had been extensive damage to the jaeger’s arm. She dialed up her welding machine to ten in order to cut through the bad section of steel until a sizeable chuck was missing. The new arm would have to be measured and completely refitted in the joint. Ordering a new arm would give Lena an opportunity to make adjustments and add some new weapon systems without sending a red flag to the marshal that she was taking too long with repairs.

The marshal would expect the arm repair to be the most extensive and time-consuming portion.

Everyone - _everyone_ \- remembered the last time this particular jaeger had been in battle. The footage of the fight played over and over again in bars, hospitals, living rooms; anywhere there was a tv. The sounds of crunching metal combined with a gut-wrenching scream from the pilot as the Knifehead Kaiju shredded the jaeger’s arm with merciless force. The video had been sensational. News channels played it on a never-ending loop.

Lena would have no trouble getting a complete arm replacement. Adding the shoulder joint would be seen as necessary and not an add-on to the order. It was a work around that could be managed.

Sam’s voice filled her comms again. “Do you really think the marshal is going to have pilots? It’s been years since the jaeger pilot program ended. It takes that long to properly train someone and then there’s the drift compatibility... It feels like we’re doing all this work for nothing. There’s a rumor the government going to shut down this facility next.”

The face shield despite the safety it provided from random sparks, it couldn’t spare Lena from the heat she felt from Sam’s comments. She hooked it back to her work belt and cleaned her hands on a grease rag. It wasn’t Lena’s fault directly that humanity hovered on the edge of extinction, but it didn’t stop her from feeling guilty about everything her family had done to push it there.

“We both know it’s not a rumor.” Lena sighed and updated the technical plans on her datapad before she tucked the device away. “They’re pulling all resources and putting them into the coastal wall. As for pilots…” Her fingers lingered on the bolts of the jaeger before she lifted herself up through the cavity. “The marshal is taking care of the program and you and I both know that drift compatibility as the general populace knows it, is a myth. We’re women of numbers, not fairy tales. There’s no magic connection between people that makes them more or less compatible. It’s math, numbers, and data. If they have one pilot, they better have already run the formulas to find a compatible co-pilot or we’re just doing busy work before the apocalypse.”

The light and noise of the hanger outside of the jaeger was harsh compared to the insular world of metal and electronics inside the suit. Lena sat on the lip of the jaeger and peered down the massive mech. Her team of techs were sealing the bottom of the legs with reinforced plates and working their way up. The rest of the hanger bustled with movement from the various jaeger teams. The Russians were testing their weapons systems. The Australians were making cosmetic repairs from their last fight with a category 2 Kaiju that had made the mainland before finally getting put down. That fight had been a stark reminder that every battle could be a jaeger’s last no matter how small the opponent.

Something flew in Lena’s vision.

She snapped out of observing the hanger and looked up. Sam waved to her from the drift drive cockpit in the jaeger’s head. The look she gave Lena said it all.

“You know...just because we are _women of numbers_ doesn’t mean that there isn’t something about drift compatibility that can’t be explained with math.”

Lena snorted. “I see you’ve been hanging out with the pilots and the flyboy fans.”

“Fly _girl_ fans and I think they prefer the term _Jae Baes_.” Sam made bunny ears with every emphasis.

This time Lena couldn’t help but laugh. “You did not just say _jae baes_.”

“I’m only using their preferred name. We’re all about sensitivity and political correctness in the modern day. It only took till the end of humanity to get here.”

Lena threw her grease rag up at Sam’s position, but her assistant easily ducked. “I expect a full diagnostics and budget report on my desk in two hours, Samantha Arias, and not a moment later or you’ll be kicked off my team and forced to spend all that time with the jae baes from now on.”

“You do realize that’s not an actual punishment, right? There’s a reason they’ve got groupies. You should take a break once in a while and hang out in the training areas. It’s not primetime tv, but the sparring between the drift pilots can be pretty entertaining. Maybe you’d see something you’d like besides this tin can.”

“This tin can might be the only thing that saves us.”

“Lena, it wouldn’t hurt to live a little before the end of the world is all I’m saying.”

Sam flashed her a soft, but sad smile before she climbed out of the jaeger onto the scaffolding and easily jumped onto the landing next to the massive jaeger before she headed toward the locker rooms. Lena sighed even as she tried to pretend Sam’s words were meant in jest. They weren’t, but unlike Sam, Lena couldn’t afford to take an hour to watch training. Lena couldn’t begrudge Sam the time to blow off steam by watching the pilots fight.

Lena couldn’t. She had the weight of her family pressing on her. A minute spent watching some flyboy or flygirl spar was a minute that she could have been making adjustments on the Mark 3 jaeger.

Her stomach knotted at the thought of the impending afternoon debriefing with the marshal. It wasn’t going to be pretty. The marshal had been making moves and not sharing them with Lena and whenever that happened it meant more money, more resources, more adjustments, and more maneuvering on the part of L-Corp.

The light from the War Clock in the command center could be seen even from this distance.

They were running out of time.

* * *

The weekly meeting with Marshal Lucy Lane was going as expected.

Poorly.

Sam Arias remained perfectly still next to Lena’s desk. It was the only office in the entire station that had a view better than the marshal’s quarters. The ocean view seemed so serene between jaeger encounters. The mesmerizing waves always remained constant, almost hypnotic and soothing. Despite the tranquility in the background, there was nothing calm in the office. Sam was the only one in the entire station to weekly witness the great back and forth between Marshal Lucy Lane and the CEO of L-Corp, Lena Luthor.

The marshal’s perfectly decorated uniform seemed like the only worthy opponent to Lena’s equally pressed pencil skirt and sharp blouse. No one would have believed a few hours ago the L-Corp CEO had been elbow deep in grease, working on a jaeger, and refitting an outdated weapons system.

Every word, phrase, idea, or complaint exchanged between Lucy and Lena had a counterpoint. Every suggestion met with a riposte. Each woman had numbers and figures ready to be referenced within a moment’s notice. They were quick to remind each other of broken promises or diverted resources and funds that had mysteriously disappeared only to be appropriated by another division. They had come prepared to fight for every inch of their respective agendas.

Lena closed the document they shared on her data pad to make her point. “Marshal Lane, I am not authorizing any more investment into this program until you can assure me that my work will not be wasted on inexperienced soldiers.”

“You have been working with my program long enough, Miss Luthor. I take offense to any suggestion there are soldiers lacking experience on this station - yourself included. Every person here is fit for duty.”

“Fit for duty and fit to operate a jaeger are two very different things.”

Lucy’s eyes darkened as she met Lena’s words. “Of all people, I think I would know the difference.”

“Then correct me if I’m wrong, marshal, but pilots just don’t fall out of the sky.”

“No, they don’t and I don’t intend to wait for one to magically fall in my lap. I have a plan in motion. Your job is to get the Mark-3 back to working condition. My job is to find the pilots. I am doing just that.”

Lena audibly scoffed at the almost flagrant dismissal to her concerns. “Marshal Lane, I didn’t pour all of my resources into this program - against the advice of my legal and financial council - on the chance of _a plan in motion_. I did this because you said you could right my brother’s wrongs and save humanity. I don’t play to lose. I am _not_ some government contractor and I am _not_ an employee. My company is the only thing keeping this program afloat. I need to know where my money and my resources are going. We are supposed to be partners.”

Lucy met Lena’s stare with a level one of her own. Sam gripped the edge of her datapad and prayed that she wouldn’t have to step in between the two formidable women. They had all reviewed the numbers. They were up against an hourglass that was rapidly running out of sand. If the scientists were right, the Kaiju encounters would increase exponentially. Without L-Corp privately funding the jaeger program, it would have already sunk. There was no way to keep the program going even with L-Corp’s backing.

They needed to seal the breach. Now.

In order to do that, they needed another operational nuclear core jaeger and that required another pair of pilots.

The tension in the room remained rooted in desperation and indomitable wills until Lucy finally acquiesced. “I have a pilot and I am working on securing the second.”

The statement reverberated through the office. Sam risked a glance to her boss. It wasn’t long ago when they had spent every day paging through budgets and project plans in Lena’s office when L-Corp was sitting at the top of the economic ladder. She never thought she would be splitting her time between overseeing an engineer team and being CFO to L-Corp on a military station. Sam never thought she’d live to see another day when the first Kaiju attacked the city she was in for a business conference.

Sam never thought she would work for the woman whose brother created the breach.

After everything they had endured together, Sam thought she would be unflappable in the wake of the Lucy’s statement. She never thought she would feel some sort of way at the announcement that Lucy had pilots. Their plan could work.

Lena’s voice measured the length of belief she willed into her question. “And where did you find these pilots? How do you know they are compatible?” Lena couldn’t give herself hope that perhaps Lucy hadn’t been selling her a line. “So I repeat my previous statement - pilots just don’t fall out of the sky.”

Lucy glanced once to Sam for the first time since she entered Lena’s office. “I’m surprised your assistant, Miss Arias, didn’t tell you...it’s Danvers.”

“Danvers?” Lena’s anger couldn’t fully form as she felt a sense of confusion that somehow Sam hadn’t told her this vital piece of information. However, the look on Sam’s face cleared her assistant of any backlash in front of Marshal Lane. Sam seemed just as surprised as Lena felt. No matter what Lucy implied, Lena and Sam were a united force or at least, they always appeared that way. Sam would have told her anything she knew.

“Alex Danvers?” Lena repeated. “You can’t be serious. I don’t care how combat ready she is. She uses a mech arm. Sam and I just finished the preliminary calibrations on the harnesses. You could have given us the courtesy to know that one of the pilots would need to have their harness modified.”

Lena glanced at Sam as if she couldn’t believe how preposterous Lucy’s suggestion seemed. Sam’s bewildered look confirmed Lena’s feelings. “Unless you have someone else with a mech arm, I don’t know how you can possibly account for drift compatibility. The numbers to match her to another pilot would be so low that to find anyone even close in such a short time, it would be statistically impossible. I can’t believe this is your solution. No wonder the government stopped funding you if this is the best you can come up with!”

Lucy let Lena rant and list all the ways that the numbers wouldn’t work. It was easier to let her chief scientist, engineer, and financial backer expend all of her energy early in the argument; it would hopefully make Lena’s next reaction less volatile.

When there was finally a break, Lucy continued.

“I have a feeling she’ll still be drift compatible with her former co-pilot. The one they call...Supergirl.”

Lucy braced herself for the inevitable fury, but it never came. Lena’s eyes went from wide to narrow slits that matched the tension in her mouth.

“You mean _the Supergirl_ that originally destroyed the jaeger I am now fixing, cost her co-pilot, Alex Danvers, an arm, and almost failed to protect Anchorage? _That_ Supergirl?”

Lucy nodded calmly at Lena’s questions. “The very same pilot who took down a category III Kaiju by herself and piloted a jaeger solo back to shore. Alex and Supergirl happen to be sisters so I have a feeling that they are still drift compatible even with Alex’s mech arm.”

“And this is your plan? This is what I’ve put everything into? We’re relying on a woman who bailed on the program four years ago and your feeling that they might still be drift compatible? No one even knows where Supergirl is. She went into hiding after the incident in Anchorage.”

Lucy met Lena’s barrage of doubt with incredible patience and confidence. She smiled and swiped a picture of a blonde-haired woman in glasses onto Lena’s datapad. The picture came with the caption:

_Kara Danvers, Reporter, Catco Media International, Asset Status - Inactive._

“Since you think in numbers, Miss Luthor, let me put it this way, when you only have one option it is statistically - the _best_ option.”

* * *

_Hong Kong_  
_Underground Office of CatCo International Media_  
  
Kara adjusted her glasses and nervously glanced to the screens that surrounded the underground office of Catco International Media’s CEO, Cat Grant. It had been three years since the multimedia giant had moved its offices to Hong Kong. Cat Grant had wanted to be as close to the action as possible. She purchased the underground office suite made of reinforced steel and set up like a nuclear bunker. The Hong Kong offices were a thousand ways different than the ones in National City, but the most noticeable difference was the windowless location underground. The underground was the safest place from Kaiju attacks.  
  
Only the poorest of the poor lived on street level.  
  
Cat Grant tapped her nails in perfect sequential order on her desk as she waited for James to finish fiddling with the video feed. The monitors that decorated Cat Grant’s office flickered from a bird's eye view of the city to raw footage of Kara interviewing a man just a few hours ago.  
  
Kara tried not to fidget as James adjusted the audio. Normally, Cat would have James edit the material before it ever came across her desk. Something was different today.  
  
Cat had been on edge and moodier since a source from the jaeger program confirmed their worst fear. The Kaiju weren’t slowing down. The encounters were only going to increase and the coastal wall wouldn’t even be halfway complete by the time the military estimated the last of the jaegers would fall in battle.  
  
Catco International was the only news media operating at full capacity this close to the breach. They were the only ones who could warn the general population. Kara tried not to think of the way Cat’s nails tapped and tapped against the desk. Each second they waited to release the reports about the failing jaeger program was time wasted. Kara could see that knowledge weighed heavy on Cat’s conscience.  
  
“Mr. Olsen, we are waiting…” Cat reminded James, but her eyes were on Kara.  
  
Cat Grant was intimidating. It was a fact of life. Even before the war and the Kaiju attacks, she had always been a force to be reckoned, but Kara felt a different anxiety with this new look Cat had been sending her way. It was thoughtful and measured as if she wanted to know some hidden value in Kara.  
  
Unnerving.  
  
It was unnerving.  
  
Their eyes held for only a moment longer before James thankfully got the video to play with audio over the office monitors. His triumphant smile wasn’t shared. Cat and Kara slowly turned their attentions to the big screen over her desk.  
  
The video took place earlier that morning just after dawn. The cameraman, none other than James Olsen, focused the lens in and out before settling on Kara’s face. The rims of her glasses caught the light from the just rising sun. She held a microphone in one hand and a datapad with her notes in the other. The camera moved from Kara reviewing her notes to the man she was interviewed.  
  
_“This is Kara Danvers reporting from Hong Kong with Catco International Media! We are interviewing people about the recent push from the Global Government to move people from the coastal cities into neighborhoods located just beyond the coastal walls. I am here with Mr. Foley.”_  
  
The camera panned to the man next to Kara. Kara remembered how he bounced on the balls of his feet and kept touching the picture of a young girl in his wallet. On camera, he looked like he was on drugs or recovering from something. Kara knew it had been neither. His energy came from desperation. He desperately wanted to be heard. He desperately wanted his pain to be felt.  
  
“ _Mr. Foley, how do you feel about the latest announcements from the Global Government regarding the coastal wall?”_  
  
_“We can’t trust the government! They are the ones who sold off all of the mainland to wealthy investors and for what? A ghetto to live in just beyond the wall? A wall!? Are you fucking kidding me? Have you seen these monsters? Have you seen them, Miss Reporter Lady? There’s no hiding from them! There’s no waiting them out! I’ve survived three encounters since we were forced to move into the city. Three! You know how many by brother survived? My wife? Two of my children? None! They survived none! A damn wall aint gonna fix shit!”_  
  
_“But do you belie-”_  
  
_“Believe!? Believe in what? There’s nothing to believe in! We’re gonna die. There’s nothing gonna save us. Don’t trust the government. Don’t trust anything but the end. We all die someday. We just all gonna die together. The apocalypse has come and gone, our survival is on borrowed time. They might look like some fishy dinosaurs, but we’re the ones who are gonna be extinct.”_  
  
_“But what about the jaeger program?”_  
  
_“Those fools? Yeah, they protected us once, but what do they do now? Minimize casualties. Casualties have names!”_  
  
_The man stopped ranting and looked up to the sky. The camera focused on his pensive thought. The light from the sunrise cast an orange glow on everything except the dark rings around the man’s eyes._

For a moment, Kara considered how that framing would have caused a stir years ago. James and his work had been award-winning. It was funny how things changed. Now, no one except the most discerning eye would appreciate his craftsmanship.  
  
_“The last Kaiju took my youngest daughter. Crushed her. I couldn’t grab her in time to pull her to safety. Collapsed the building right on top of us. She is- was ten years old and had a smile that could light up a city block. Every monster seems to make shore. The last time they were stopped at the ocean was when Supergirl stopped the category three in Anchorage, but every Kaiju since then has hit a city. And they think a wall is going to stop them? Fuck the government!”_  
  
_At the mention of Supergirl, the camera made an unintentional pan away from the man’s face to Kara. A brief moment flashed between the sunlight and the blue eyes beneath the rims and lens of her glasses. Kara’s sympathetic expression hardened as she realized where the camera was focused. She made a quick shake with her head and James once again centered the interviewee in the frame._  
  
Kara remembered wanting desperately to end the interview.  
  
She risked a glance from the monitor to Cat Grant. Her boss was no longer watching the interview. The name Supergirl lingered between them.  
  
Kara felt more than uncomfortable at the mention of the nickname. No one knew the name of the pilot who had stopped the Kaiju attack at Anchorage and piloted a jaeger solo. So they started calling that mysterious pilot Supergirl.  
  
Supergirl.  
  
Footage of the Anchorage fight had been unavoidable for months. News stations, including Catco, had played it over and over again. Newscasters and writers had asked who was this pilot who could control a jaeger by herself and where had she gone? Why had she disappeared? If she could pilot a jaeger solo, could others? Would this be a turning point in the war?  
  
Eventually, they stopped asking questions about where Supergirl had gone, but the name lingered like a fairytale; a story to tell kids at night to help them sleep. The question wasn’t where had Supergirl gone, but instead, the question became when would Supergirl return?  
  
Kara knew what people whispered, but she knew the truth of what happened in Anchorage. They didn’t. They only saw the video footage and the aftermath of the battle. They didn’t see what had led to piloting the jaeger by herself. They didn’t see Alex pinned to the wall of the control console by a Kaiju claw. They didn’t know that Kara had lost herself in the drift during the middle of the battle.

They didn’t know how she had failed to stay in control.  
  
_“Thank you for being so candid with your thoughts.”_  
  
_“Yeah, well, we gotta be truthful with the end so near.”_  
  
The raw footage from the street interview screening cut off and left the office in an uneasy quiet. For a moment, it felt as if they were once again at the top of the CatCo International.

“Run it.”

Cat Grant’s voice invited no discussion, but it didn’t stop at least one voice from making a dissent.

“Miss Grant, you can’t be serious. We’re already under enough pressure from the government to be as cooperative with their efforts as possible.” James pleaded.

“We are cooperative.”

“This isn’t!” James pointed to the screen and looked for an ally, but Kara didn’t - couldn’t meet his eyes. Cat Grant had gone out on a limb when she hired her. She owed her life and this job to the media mogul. “He literally ends with fuck the government.”

“So edit that part out.” Cat waved her hands dismissively. The LED screens flickered and shifted to reflect what the surrounding city would look like if she still had a birds eye view. “Or keep it in. I don’t care. It’s like the man said - we all must be truthful with the end so near. He’s just stating his opinion and if we’re not the ones running it, who will hear a voice like his?”

“Cat…” James risked her first name.

“Mr. Olson, when you accepted the job offer to join CatCo, you went through orientation, you signed a statement that said you would report facts and live within a code of conduct and ethics. I signed the same document. We are going to run this piece.”

James rested his hands on his hips and let out an audible groan before he turned to the only person who had remained silent during the entire exchange.

“And what about Supergirl’s identity?”

Cat shrugged. “What about her identity?

“He talked about-” James kept Kara’s gaze. “-he talked about Supergirl.”

Cat half-heartedly glanced in Kara’s direction before giving the same hand wave as before.

“What the pilot known as Supergirl has done or is doing is none of my concern. I am sure wherever Supergirl is, she is doing the best she can. She disappeared four years ago after the Anchorage attack. Why should it matter if we air a man mentioning her?”

James shifted between incredulity at Cat to pleading with Kara. Neither responded the way he wanted.

“No one knows where Supergirl is.” Cat’s eyebrow rose an impossible height as she awaited the answer. “Isn’t that right, Kara?”

“Of course, Miss Grant.” Kara stammered and bobbed her head.

“Of course, I’m right. You heard her, Mr. Olsen. Run the piece. Fix that mistake you made with the camera when you panned to Kara. We don’t need anyone taking a second look at Ms. Danvers and wondering what she looks like beneath those glasses. Do we?”

Kara felt her heart jump to her throat. They had never talked about what she had done before applying to Catco Media International. Cat Grant had never questioned her flimsy excuse for having some holes in her resume. However, in the interview, Cat made the off-handed comment that she believed that Kara could do great things - _super_ things - and that was why she was willing to take a chance hiring her.

James caught Cat’s implication. His eyes widened as he looked at Kara. Before James could argue with Cat any further, she waved her hand a third time to dismiss him, but then pointed. “Kiera, you stay.”

The reinforced steel door creaked as James exited the office.

“Sit.”

“Miss Grant, I can explain. I didn’t mean to-”

“Stop.” Cat held her hand up. “You did good work. Don’t apologize for that. Ever.”

Kara took her place in front of Cat’s desk and readjusted her glasses, but it did little to obscure the flush in her cheeks. Cat didn’t give many compliments and never when they were unearned. To reject Cat’s praise would be paramount to sin. Instead, Kara deflected. Her voice lowered and lost most of its uncertainty from before. “I could have exposed CatCo and myself. If the world knew you were harboring me, I don’t think they would be forgiving.”

“I’m harboring no one, Kara.” Cat said seriously. “I am employing a woman who believes in doing the best good and in the best way possible. Unless you’re telling me that your position has changed?”

“No!” Kara’s voice filled with passion before she pulled back. “No. I am dedicated to making sure that we don’t forget about these people. This is the best way to protect them. We have to keep pushing for exposure and better programs and to get them out of the cities.”

Cat nodded expectantly. She had heard similar words from Kara before. “We’re going to run this video, Kara.”

“Good. I think their voices need to be heard by others, but mostly by those who feel safe inland. They need to know they can’t ignore what’s happening beyon-”

“And then we are going to run the piece exposing what we’ve learned from our jaeger program informants.”

A sharp chill ran down Kara’s back. She felt the strain of her two lives colliding. “It will create chaos.”

“The world is already in chaos, Kara.”

“There will be panic and riots. People will die.”

“Kara-” Cat captured Kara’s hesitation in the steadfastness of her resolve. “-we help people by telling them the truth. The public needs to know the jaeger program will fail before the coastal wall is even halfway complete.”

“The jaeger program won’t fail.” Kara thought of Alex. She was still stationed at the Shatterdome, but Alex had said almost the same thing as the report. It was a losing battle. “It can’t fail.”

“You and I both know what the scientists at the jaeger station have predicted. The Kaiju occurrence rate will continue to increase. The jaegers can’t possibly keep up with the attacks. After we release the report...we will wait for the end, watch the last of our protectors fall one by one until checkmate. There won’t be much journalist work needed here. I suggest you call relatives, if you have any inland, and see if you can make your way to safety.”

“Are you sending me away?”

“Yes, technically, I’m firing you..” Cat tsked at any protest before she continued. “I’m saving you, Kara. There’s nothing more you can do here.”

Kara couldn’t stop herself. She halfway stood from her chair before she realized what she was doing. “That’s not true! There’s always something that can be done! You never give up! We can do something here to help these people!”

Cat leaned back in her chair but didn’t react to Kara’s outburst. Her gaze was critical, but not judgmental, as if she had expected Kara to say those exact words. It hadn’t been a trap and yet, exposed, Kara felt caught. She shifted and tried to shake the feeling that Cat Grant had something deeper in mind than this small conversation.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I can do more - we, at Catco, can do more! I don’t want to go into the mainland.”

“Then perhaps you should know that a Marshal Lucy Lane contacted me today and asked about your whereabouts. She seems to think there is something more you could be doing outside of Catco.”

Kara’s chest tightened and her throat constricted. “I’m not who they think I am…”

“Then who are you, Kara?”

“I almost got everyone killed. I almost got my sister killed.”

Cat’s eyes flashed. “But you didn’t.”

“You saved an entire city single handed and you gave them hope.” Cat stood up from her desk. “I can’t make a decision for you. Only you know what you’re capable of, but in the four years that you have worked for me, I have seen you move mountains to accomplish your assignments.”

“Everything I worked with was destroyed- my jaeger, my partner. There’s nothing there for me.”

“That’s not what the marshal seemed to suggest.”

“And if I fail again?”

Cat gave Kara a soft sigh. She brushed the back of her hand against Kara’s cheek and pushed back some of the blonde hair that framed Kara’s face. “At least you would have given us a fighting chance.”

Kara closed her eyes and focused on the Cat’s words. Alex had called her two weeks ago and wanted to know if she was preparing for the worst, but more importantly, if Kara would consider coming back to the program.

Cat didn’t give her much time to process a decision. She pressed the button to her intercom. “Miss Tessmacher, please escort Marshal Lane into my office.”

The look that passed between Kara and Cat felt something akin to pride - more than Kara could ever remember coming from her mentor before.

“Kara, make sure you turn in your press badge and keycard to HR when you’re done.” Cat glanced to the door as it opened. “I’ll leave you two to use my office for as long as you need. Please lock up when you’re done. And, Kara, even if this is the end of humanity, knowing you’re out there, gives me hope and it’s been a long time since I felt hope.”

Cat nodded to the figure in the doorway. “Marshal Lane, take care of her or you’ll have worse demons to face than Kaiju.”

“You have my word, Miss Grant.” Marshal Lucy Lane spared Cat a look of comradery even when she was fully aware of weight of the request.

The moment didn’t last long as Lucy focused back on Kara.

“Supergirl, it’s been far too long.”

 

 

 

 


End file.
